When you see so many strange coincidences, the only logical conclusion is that an agent is behind it all. In other words, it’s a conspiracy.

A few weeks ago I came across an obscure but very interesting little book called “The Day We Bombed Utah”. It’s an unsung bit of reportage chronicling our brief, 25-year flirtation with nuclear testing, both above ground and underground, that scattered thousands of tons of dangerously radioactive material across the Utah desert and as far away as New York state. Even after the first victims began to be documented, the government denied the problems were due to radioactive fallout. First 4300 sheep died with severe radiation burns on their skin, mouths and feet. Then people started to get leukemia, skin cancers, brain tumors, and other cancers. Through it all the government continued to deny any connection between nuclear tests and cancer.

The tests began in 1953, and continued until the Reagan administration. Thousands of nuclear explosions, all releasing radioactive dust and ash into the air, and government denials of responsibility for any damages caused to its own citizens.

Sound familiar? It should… for 70 years methyl mercury, AKA thimerosal, has been used as a preservative in vaccines. 70 years ago the first cases of autism began to be identified.

Coincidence? Hardly. Anyone familiar with the way government operates should know that the first instinct of any bureaucracy is self-preservation. First deny, then cover up, then blame something other than yourself. Finally, if you can’t weasel out of it, admit responsibility, but only after the last claimant has died. That’s the pattern – it’s as old as government itself.

And if we’ve learned anything from these “coincidences”, it should be that anyone who takes a government agency at its word is an idiot.

And so is anyone who thinks thimerosal is safe. Sorry, that’s not entirely fair.